


Skating on thin ice

by Doombunny



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-07
Updated: 2019-12-07
Packaged: 2021-02-18 12:14:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21710584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Doombunny/pseuds/Doombunny
Summary: This was written for the 25 days of Christmas Challenge that is hosted by  @panicfob .  The Day 7 Challenge prompt was Ice SkatingWarnings: Fluff and hints of a relationshipPairing:  OFC x Tony StarkSummary: Old fashioned methods help Tony make things special for Belle
Relationships: Tony Stark/OFC (Belle Porter)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	Skating on thin ice

Warm hands with long dexterous fingers wrapped around Belle’s wrists guiding her forwards. It didn’t matter how much she had faith that the hands holding hers wouldn’t lead her into trouble, it was still unnerving to not be able to see where she was going.

“Come on Snowflake, not much further” She could hear the amusement in Tony’s voice and tried to let herself relax a little. “I promise you are perfectly safe”. 

Belle could feel a light wind blowing on her face, and she was glad that Tony had made her put her hat and scarf on before they left. She tried focusing on her other sense and knew that they were outside of the compound, and they were walking on the grass but other than that she couldn’t tell much else about what was happening.

Tony couldn’t keep his eyes off of Belle’s face, even with her eyes covered he could tell that she was nervous about what was happening and where they were going. Her bottom lip spent more time between her teeth than was usual and her hands had a slight tremor to them, He was sure that she would like his surprise, but he didn’t want to scare her. This woman had come to mean more to him than he had ever expected.

When he had woken up on the couch Belle curled up against him, he had a moment of utter blind panic. They were covered in a blanket which meant that someone had seen them, and Belle could read more into this than he wanted and then……. He took a second to think it through. 

Who had seen them, well that was was enough to work out - he could just ask FRIDAY so that left him with what would happen when Belle woke up. The worst case scenario - she ran away screaming and didn’t speak to him again. Well she would have to speak to him when they were mission planning, and executing. Ok so out of work she wouldn’t speak to him , he could work around that right? 

Ok so if she got scared he could back off, but last night she had seemed really happy to be physically close with him, but it could have been the drink talking. She was shy though so maybe the drink let her say what she was really felling. His gut told him that the best thing to do was to run, to not take the chance, his heart said just to wait and see. 

Before he could decide either way Belle snuggled in a little closer to him, her arms tightening slightly as she seemed to soak in his presence and his heart won out over his head. He had laid there enjoying the moment until Belle had stirred. He felt her freeze obviously realizing the position that they were in. Tony had tightened his grip slightly and she had relaxed. They had taken their time getting up and having coffee together and writing down her cocktail recipe before separating to go on about their days, neither quite loosing the smile they had been wearing. 

He wanted to do things for Belle that let her know just how special she was to him, but everything that he come up with just felt wrong. Belle wasn’t a girl who was comfortable with grand gestures, which was unfortunate as he was really good at those, so he needed to find other ways to express himself.

HE enjoyed sitting with her and sharing a morning coffee while he read through what ever turned up in his inbox and she started looking through her own set of tasks. When he was with her his brain became more quiet and he often found he could sort through his ideas a little more clearly as long as those ideas didn’t have anything to do with showing Belle a little fo what he felt.

At the height of his frustration he had been stomping around his lab in a foul mood when Bucky had appeared needed his arm to be assessed. Tony had been glad of the distraction even if his mood didn’t improved

“What’s bugging you Stark. You seem even less pleasant than usual”

He had glared back at the soldier - annoyed mostly at himself

“OK so you’re old and people had less stuff when you were last walking around - right?”

Bucky had nodded, unsure as to where this was going “So what kind of gifts did you get people, to show them that they mattered?” 

“Like when people were courting ?”

“No not when you were courting. Jesus!” He pushed back on the stool rolling back and looking up at the ceiling “Just when you want to make sure they know that you were thinking of them, and you were glad that were there”

Bucky rubbed his flesh hadn’t over his mouth using It to hide his smile. It sure seemed like he was talking about courting based on what Bucky remember. As much as he was desperate to say that Tony so rarely asked for input that he didn’t want to put him off so he restrained himself

“Well it’s been a while but usually you would try and do something nice for them, maybe take your gal somewhere that she had wanted to go to, perhaps to a movie. We wrote letters too”

Tony rolled himself back towards Bucky picking up a screwdriver and adjusting the plates a little further. “Interesting, well there you go - the arm should be good to go. I’ll schedule FRIDAY to run diagnostics over the next few days and if there is anything off then there are a couple of other things we can try”. He dismissed the older man his mind already plotting his next steps.

Belle had laughed when she had found a hand written note slid under her apartment door asking her to be ready to be collected in 2 mornings time, dressed for the outdoors. She had tried to catch up with Tony to ask him about what he had planned but he managed to avoid her, always heading off somewhere else, with a smile and a wave and now she found herself blindfolded and still non the wiser of what was happening,

Concentrating Belle realized that she could hear what sounded like voices, one of them sounded like Thor. Belle started to slow, why would the others be out here? She trusted Tony but she didn’t want to look like an idiot.

“Its Ok Belle, I promise I knew that they would be here” Tony tried to reassure her. “Just a little further Belle”  
Letting go of a shuddering breath she nodded her agreement and stepped forward enough to be able to feel a little of the heat radiating from the man she was putting her faith in.

A few minutes later he pulled her to a stop, moving behind her to start to free the blindfold. She felt the knot loosen but Tony held it in place as he learnt in closer to her ear “I need you to know that the time I have with you is important to me, I enjoy it - a lot and I want to you to understand that I need you to be happy”. The hair on her neck stood up as his warm breath passed over it, his words sinking in

“I have a past Snowflake, it’s out there for everyone to see, but I am trying to do better. I’m going misstep and get it wrong, but I hope today is right” The blindfold dropped and Belle blinked allowing her eyes to get used to the light and then let out a gasp quickly followed by a giggle.

“It is unclear to me why it is that this…thing is fun Lady Belle. Blades are to be used by a warrior to defeat his enemy, not to propel ones self across the ground”

Belle couldn’t help but smile at the Asguardians reaction to the current activity. He was making his way across an ice rink, arms flailing and a frown of concentration on his face. 

She looked over her shoulder at Tony who was currently rolling his eyes. Natasha and Bucky were skating as a pair smooth and graceful while Bruce, Steve and Sam were stood off to the side. Bruce seemed to be attempting to explaining something that involved the ice skate being upside down. What ever it was Sam looked confused and Steve kept shaking his head.

“Well mostly because it’s fun Point Break. You said that you wanted to try some fun winter activities and this is one of them” 

“I have been to places where there is ice and it was not a positive experience. This seems like something that my brother would do simply to have people laugh at me” the scowl on Thor’s face said it all.

“Yes well, I am not scared you understand, it just doesn’t seem like this is a wise plan. I am happy to try this skating but it is not clear to me quite how this is actually fun”

Watching her face Tony allowed himself to relax a little “So this was an acceptable choice then?”

“Tony - this is - its beyond anything that I cold have dreamt. Ive always wanted to try skating!” Belle reached up to squeeze his forearm her smile bright and shining. 

“Well then I say we should get you into some boots and then you can hit the ice”

Hitting the ice seemed to be what fate quite literally had in stock for Belle as it turned out that ice skating was harder than she had anticipated. Tony watched as she wobbled and fell but still pulled herself back up, smile firmly in place. Eventually Steve took pity on her and smoothly skated over, helping her up and giving her pointers.

Eventually Belle managed to make half a circuit under her own steam without windmilling arms and her cry of triumph made Tony laugh out loud

“Tony look I’m getting the hang of it!”

“You certainly seem to be more vertical than you have been up until now Snowflake’ He called back

“Come on out and join us” she beckoned him forward but Tony just shook his head

“Sorry Snowflake but all that ice isn’t my idea of a good time, I’ve got to keep these “ he wiggled his fingers “In good working order”

“Come on Tony, its fun” Steve skated over stepping onto the rubber surround to the ruins before dropping his voice “You did this for her right ? So got spend time with her. She doesn’t care if you’re not the nest, she just wants to share the experience with you”

Tony rubbed the back of his neck - there was a good chance that Steve was right, it did seem to be an annoying habit of his. Perhaps he should have put a little more thought into a plan that didn’t require him to fall on his ass. 

The boots felt uncomfortable and he waddled a but when he walked to the ice rink, but no matter how ridiculous he felt the smile he got from Belle made it all worth while. 

“Ok so Capsicle - gimme the lowdown. How do we make this shit work?”

A couple of close encounters with the ice later he was pretty sure that he was never ice skating again, but he did seem able to keep his feet under him a little more and was able to make his way over to Belle who was currently hanging onto the barrier and talking to Wanda. 

“Alright Snowflake I think I got this, how about you take me for a whirl”. Tony wiggled his eyebrows and help out his hand

“I’ll see you later Wanda” Belle pushed away and wobbled over to Tony grabbing his hand. They made their way on a lap of the rink, laughing and teasing each other as they went. Wanda smiled as Tony’s arms started to windmill and sent a small burst of energy to prop him up and avoid the spill.

Belle had taken her gloves off so that she could hold Tony’s hand more closely. She loved the feeling of the calluses on his fingers when they brushed against her skin, it made her heart beet a little faster and gave her the urge to curl into him and feel the rest of his body against her. 

Tony pulled them to a halt at the far end of the rink “Thank you for getting me out here. I think I would have missed out if you hadn’t talked me into it”

“I think it was Steve who talked you into it, but there is no one else that I would rather have experience this with”. Resting against the side Belle turned a little so she faced him a little more, reaching out for his other hand “The fact you put all this effort into this, and that we shared it with the other. It’s one for the books. It seems that all my best days come courtesy of you”

Tony leant forward, resting his forehead against Belle’s. “I just want for you to be happy Belle. I want to see that smile of yours, I want to know that I helped keep it there. If that means that we slip about on frozen water so be it. I can’t think of many things I wouldn’t do for you Belle”. 

Their noses brushed against one another and Belle breathed in deeply, the warm smell of his cologne filled her nose. The feelings that she had when she was close to Tony weren’t something that she focused on, perhaps he only wanted to look out for her as a sister, but she didn’t think that was what was happening here. There was a chance that her next move would blow her life out the water, but she had spent so long not experiencing things that for once she wanted to be the one to make a move. 

Pulling against Tonys’ hand she slid him a little closer before leaning in a little on pressing her lips against his. She felt his hands tighten around her own and then he was kissing her back. His lips were warm and he moved them slowly against her own keeping her close and Belle felt like she was flying.

Tony was the first to pull back, he let go of her hand and brushed the back of his fingers down her cheek, his eyes warm and pupils slightly blown. “You know I’m pretty sure I would be ok falling on my ass another dozen or so times if I got another of those kisses” 

Belle blushed but leaned her head a little against his fingers “I wouldn’t want you to get any more bruised, maybe the next time we try it off the ice”. Tony laughed and started to pull them over to the exit using the barrier

“So how about we say we are done with this and go and get something warm to drink, and maybe see whether it feels different when we’re to freezing to death” 

“What ever you want Tony” Belle couldn’t help but agree. 

Stepping off the ice the couple turned at the sound of a loud crash and found Thor lying sprawled on his back in the middle of the rink “Odin’s balls Stark. This has to be some kind of trick, there is no way someone can find this process fun. If you told me that this was some kind of torture then I would be more inclined to believe you”

Belles laugh joined Tony’s as they watched the annoyed King attempt and fail to get to his feet, It eventually took Bucky and Steve to get him up and over towards the exit. Her arm wrapped around Tony’s waist while his was draped over her shoulder. Her head was relaxed against him and she reviled in the kisses he placed on her head eventually looking up to softly peck his lips again.


End file.
